Speaker 1: Welcome to Spotlight Advanced. I'm Alice Irrazari.
Speaker 2: And I am Patrick Woodwood. Spotlight uses a special English
Speaker 2: method of broadcasting. It is easier for people to understand
Speaker 2: no matter where in the world they live.
Speaker 3: A young boy walks along a country road in England.
Speaker 3: He is pulling a huge bird along the road. The
Speaker 3: leg of the bird is broken, but the bird is
Speaker 3: still alive. The young boy walks a long way. He
Speaker 3: arrives home. His father is at home with some other men.
Speaker 3: They have been working in the fields all day. They
Speaker 3: take the bird from the boy. It will feed many people.
Speaker 3: It is huge. One of the men kills the bird
Speaker 3: by breaking its neck. But this bird is the last
Speaker 3: of its kind. The Great Bustard is dead.
Speaker 1: Henry Blackmore wrote this story in eighteen fifty six. It
Speaker 1: speaks of the death of one of the last great
Speaker 1: British bustards in England. The Great bustard has a scientific
Speaker 1: name Otis Tarda. It is not surprising that this bird disappeared.
Speaker 1: English people hunted this bird for its wonderful meat. They
Speaker 1: killed large numbers of them. But bird experts ornithologists are
Speaker 1: now helping to bring the great bustard back to England.
Speaker 1: Today's spotlight is on their efforts.
Speaker 2: The group of ornithologists we are talking about is the
Speaker 2: Great Bustard group. They have established a new home for
Speaker 2: the birds. It is on the Salisbury Plain in Wiltshire, England.
Speaker 2: They chose this area of England because it is a
Speaker 2: good environment for the birds with a good supply of food.
Speaker 1: The British Army uses a large area of Salisbury Plain
Speaker 1: for training. Citizens are not permitted to use this area.
Speaker 1: This is good news for the birds. It means protection.
Speaker 1: Only soldiers training with the army can use the area.
Speaker 1: These soldiers try to stay away from the birds. This
Speaker 1: lack of people means less danger for wildlife. Other rare
Speaker 1: birds have survived well in this environment.
Speaker 2: So what makes this bird so special? Well, the Great
Speaker 2: Bustard is the world's heaviest flying bird. Male birds can
Speaker 2: weigh up to twenty kilograms. They can measure over a
Speaker 2: meter long. The birds make a noise similar to that
Speaker 2: of a dog. They can also live for twenty five years.
Speaker 2: This makes them one of nature's longest lived birds. The
Speaker 2: Great Bustard is also very rare. Pologists estimate that fewer
Speaker 2: than fifty thousand grape bustards exist in the world today.
Speaker 1: The new English Group or Colony will help to protect
Speaker 1: the birds for the future. The colony is the result
Speaker 1: of an international effort involving experts in Britain and Spain,
Speaker 1: so British and Spanish ornithologists are working together. Originally the
Speaker 1: project involved ornithologists from Russia as well. The first birds
Speaker 1: in the English Colony came from Saratov in southern Russia,
Speaker 1: but these birds often left or migrated back to Saratov.
Speaker 1: Birds from Spain left less often. The first birds came
Speaker 1: to England in two thousand and four. More young birds
Speaker 1: have been brought to England every summer since then.
Speaker 2: Life is also difficult for the grape bustard in Spain.
Speaker 2: Farming and expanding human populations are pushing the grape bustard
Speaker 2: out of its naturally environment. Ornithologists estimate that about thirty
Speaker 2: thousand grape bustards survive in Spain. The Russian ornithologists work
Speaker 2: with the farmers in central Spain. Eggs can easily be
Speaker 2: destroyed by farming equipment, so any farmer who finds eggs
Speaker 2: in his fields informs the ornithologists. The ornithologists then rescue
Speaker 2: the eggs.
Speaker 1: So what happens to the birds after they arrive in England. Well,
Speaker 1: first of all, they need to be quarantined, that is,
Speaker 1: kept away from other creatures. This makes sure that they
Speaker 1: do not carry any diseases into the country. After this,
Speaker 1: the job of teaching the young birds begins.
Speaker 2: The experts use a process called isolation rearing. This means
Speaker 2: that the young birds do not have any links with humans.
Speaker 2: Young birds often form an attachment to anyone who feeds
Speaker 2: and looks after them. This is called imprinting. In the wild,
Speaker 2: imprinting is very important. It means that a young bird
Speaker 2: will always follow its parents. But for the birds in England,
Speaker 2: imprinting would mean becoming attached to humans. This would prevent
Speaker 2: them from learning to avoid humans later it would prevent
Speaker 2: them from becoming truly wild.
Speaker 1: When the birds are about four months old, the project
Speaker 1: leaders released the birds into the wild. The area for
Speaker 1: the birds is over seven hundred eighty square kilometers. The
Speaker 1: grape bustards are slowly making the area their home, but
Speaker 1: this is taking a long time. This is because the
Speaker 1: birds have not been able to produce their own young.
Speaker 1: A male grape bustard is only able to reproduce when
Speaker 1: it reaches five years old.
Speaker 2: Five years after the first grape bustards came to England,
Speaker 2: the birds were finally ready to reproduce. In early June
Speaker 2: two thousand and nine, the ornithologists announced success. Two baby
Speaker 2: grape bustards had hatched from their eggs. This was the
Speaker 2: first time that any Great bustard had hatched in England
Speaker 2: since eighteen thirty two. David Waters is the director of
Speaker 2: the Great Bustard Group. He said, this.
Speaker 4: Is a great step forward for our project. It is
Speaker 4: also great news for wildlife in the UK, for the
Speaker 4: great bustards and for me. It has been a hard
Speaker 4: struggle to get this far, but to see Great bustards
Speaker 4: born here for the first time in one hundred and
Speaker 4: seventy seven years is wonderful.
Speaker 1: By twenty twenty two, British ornithologists counted twenty nests in
Speaker 1: the wild. They estimate that one third of the great
Speaker 1: bustards were born and reared by wild parents in Wiltshire.
Speaker 1: Ornithologists consider the population to be self sufficient and growing.
Speaker 1: Program will continue. The hope is that the number of
Speaker 1: Great bustards will grow so that this species will remain
Speaker 1: on earth.
Speaker 2: Wildlife experts estimate that the world loses about seventy thousand
Speaker 2: different plants and animals every year. These creatures become extinct.
Speaker 2: They no longer exist anywhere in the world. This is
Speaker 2: a serious matter because nature depends on balance. When one
Speaker 2: animal disappears, it has an effect on the whole environment.
Speaker 1: Many experts believe that individual countries cannot solve this problem.
Speaker 1: They believe that the international community needs to act together.
Speaker 1: The Great Busted Project is an example of this sort
Speaker 1: of action, but this alone will not save the birds.
Speaker 1: Including the Colony and the United Kingdom, the Great Bustard's
Speaker 1: population is still declining. According to experts at Cambridge University,
Speaker 1: there are only about thirty thousand of these special birds
Speaker 1: left in the world. War needs to be done, but
Speaker 1: projects like the Great Bustard Project do offer hope. People
Speaker 1: who enjoy wildlife hope that more such projects will develop
Speaker 1: in the future. They hope that the world will become
Speaker 1: a safe environment for all creatures, great and small.
Speaker 2: Have you seen a Great Bustard in the wild or
Speaker 2: in a zoo? How do you respond to vanishing wildlife?
Speaker 2: What gives you hope that some species will be able
Speaker 2: to recover? What success stories for birds or animals have
Speaker 2: happened in your country. What creatures no longer live in
Speaker 2: your country because of their extinction. You can leave a
Speaker 2: comment on our website at www dot Spotlight English dot com.
Speaker 2: You can also find us on YouTube, Facebook, TikTok, Blue Sky,
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Speaker 2: Spotlight English app.
Speaker 1: The writer of this program was from the Spotlight team.
Speaker 1: The producer was Michyo Osaki. The voices you heard were
Speaker 1: from the United States and the United Kingdom. All quotes
Speaker 1: were adapted for this program and voiced by Spotlight. You
Speaker 1: can listen to this program again and read it on
Speaker 1: the internet at www dot Spotlight English dot com. This
Speaker 1: program is called The Great Bustard Returns.
Speaker 2: We hope you can join us again for the next
Speaker 2: Spotlight program. Goodbye.